Ignorance or Bias

Think for a moment how you would define each of these terms. When we hear emotionally charged words, most likely we react from what we've been taught over our life time. We can become fixed in our way of thinking and reacting as we get older.

Ignorance is defined as having a lack of knowledge or understanding about something. Bias is have a fixed or closed mindset on a subject. Both have very critical things in common and can be very harmful to a relationship or society.

In God's word shows us that ignorance can cause us to sin. When we're not studying His word we can't live in His ways and we can't love others as He loves us. That makes us ignorant of Him and causes us to sin against Him.

While some say "ignorance is bliss" it is very detrimental to our relationship with our Creator and with each other. In Ephesians 4, Paul talks about walking in unity with God and with one another through love. He also talks about the spiritual gifts God gave each of us to serve Him and others. When we grow in our relationship with God we have no excuse for ignorance. His word and the Holy Spirit are our teachers. We become new in Him and leave behind our old sinful ways. 1 Peter 2 talks about our inheritance through Jesus death on the cross and His blood shed for our salvation. "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men" (verse 15).

Ignorance and bias together can result in prejudice thoughts and actions. God created humans as a race of people. Race is used incorrectly and with bias throughout humanity. There are ethnicities but only one race, the human race. To overcome ignorance and bias we must be in a relationship with God and study His Word. That is the foundation we are to stand upon.

1 Corinthians 3:9-11